Vince Cable ‘vindicated’ over News Corporation-BSkyB bid approach

Business secretary Vince Cable has admitted he feels ‘vindicated’ by his approach to dealing with News Corporation’s BSkyB bid following the furore over how culture secretary Jeremy Hunt handled the issue.

Business secretary Vince Cable has kept a low profile since the row over Jeremy Hunt’s handling of the BSkyB bid process began (Picture: AP)

Mr Cable told Sky News that he dealt with the bid process ‘in an entirely proper and fair way’.

The Liberal Democrat MP was stripped of the responsibility of ruling on the proposed bid when he was caught in an undercover newspaper sting saying he had ‘declared war’ on News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch.

The quasi-judicial role was then transferred to culture secretary Mr Hunt, who eventually approved the £8billion bid before it was abandoned by Mr Murdoch amid public outcry over phone hacking at the News of the World.

Mr Hunt has faced demands to resign since Mr Murdoch’s son James published evidence at the Leveson Inquiry showing extensive contact between the culture secretary’s aide Adam Smith and News Corporation lobbyist Frederic Michel throughout the bid process.

David Cameron has so far given his backing to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt (Picture: PA)

Prime minister David Cameron has given the culture secretary his full support despite Mr Smith’s own resignation after admitting he had gotten too close to News Corporation.

In some of his first public comments on the issue since the correspondence between Mr Smith and Mr Michel was published, Mr Cable said his arms’ length approach to ruling on the bid had been justified.

‘Well I certainly do feel vindicated and I certainly dealt with it in an entirely proper and fair way but the overall approach of the government has as you know been dealt with by the Leveson Inquiry, it was set up by this government, my party was very active in pushing for the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry,’ he told the Murnaghan programme.

‘That’s where ministers and others are going to be heard, setting out their evidence, and I’m one of them and I’d rather leave it to that forum to decide what happened and what should have happened, rather than just extemporise in this way.’

James Murdoch recently appeared before the Leveson Inquiry (Picture: Reuters)

He went on to say that the ‘quasi-judicial’ role ministers assumed in these situations demanded distance with a bidder such as News Corporation.

‘Well that’s part of having a quasi-judicial role, a quasi-judicial role is about being independent and objective, I certainly was and as far as government as a whole, that is being dealt with through the inquiry,’ he explained.